Rooting Android vs Jailbreaking iOS: what's the difference?

Over the weekend a friend of mine told me they were considering switching from an iPhone to Android. This friend asked me about some benefits of doing so. One of the pros I mentioned about Android was that you can root the phone.

After asking me a few questions about it, his response was "OK, yeah, but I can also jailbreak my iPhone, so no big difference there“. Lots of users, on both Android and iOS alike, actually don't know that there is a very big difference between the iOS jailbreak and Android root access. You can't actually "jailbreak" Android or "root" iOS. So this this article will explain a few of the differences between rooting Android and iOS jailbreak.

Let's start with the iPhone. Some iPhone users like to "jailbreak“ their device after purchasing it, as it allows you to perform things on the iPhone that you can't do when it's not jailbroken. So what is jailbreaking? Jailbreaking is the process of removing software restrictions put into place by Apple on devices that run the iOS operating system.

To accomplish a jailbreak, a custom kernel is used to grant root access to the device. Once an iOS user has jailbroke his device, he is then able to download apps that aren't in the App Store, use themes, and extenstions that Apple doesn't support. Users do still have access to the App Store and iTunes when a device is jailbroken, and it doesn't affect standard functionality.

Basically, jailbreaking allows you to use software that Apple doesn't authorize. Now, while iOS users might consider jailbreaking their iPhone the same thing as Android users consider rooting their phones, there is a huge difference. In fact, you can't even compare jailbreaking to rooting. Here's why.

Android Root

Apple's operating system is not an open source system, meaning that you cannot make changes to the actual source code. Android however, is an open source operating system, and allows you to do much more than just install 3rd party apps.

Android out of the box allows users to install third-party apps (also known as sideloading), already allows you to install themes, and even allows you to install applications directly from your SD card or internal memory of your device. Everything that iOS users hope to accomplish with jailbreaking their device is already included as basic functionality within Android.

So what exactly does root accomplish for Android? Well, not only does it allow you to gain privileged control of your device, overcome limitations that carriers and OEMs put on devices (skins, ect), but also allows you to completely remove and replace the entire operating system of the device. This is achievable due to the fact that Android itself was built on a Linux kernel, and allows a user to access administrative permissions on their phone or tablet.

So on an Android device, rooting basically gives you access to more or less the entire operating system. You can completely remove the OS and replace it with user made operating systems that contain tweaks and enhancements (known as ROMS), and you can even access and adjust settings such as your processor speeds.

With the help of a custom kernel, iOS devices can be jailbroken to run custom apps. With the help of a custom kernel on Android, you can overclock or underclock your actual processor speed. Pretty big difference right?

Additionally, root users can access the flash memory chip on their device, which is not possible with iOS devices. Rooting an Android phone grants the user what's known as "Superuser“ permissions, which allows specific applications to have root rights. The process itself normally includes exploiting a security weakness in firmware shipped from the factory.

Google in many cases will encourage rooting (shipping many devices with unlocked bootloaders to make the process very simple) while warning you that it can cause damage to the device. Apple on the other hand is dead set against jailbreaking, as they only want users using apps distributed from their App Store.

Easiest explanation to Explain root vs jailbreaking

Think of it like the Matrix: jailbreaking is comparable to what Morpheus could do. He could bend the rules of the system to overcome certain restrictions, but was still bound to its rules. Rooting is what Neo could do. Not only could he bend the rules, he could completely break them (my God that was a slick analogy).

So there you are. That's a very brief and not overly technical way to describe the difference between jailbreaking and rooting. So next time you hear an iOS user saying that he can jailbreak his device the same way you root your Android device, he might actually be interested to know that there is indeed a very big difference.

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1. Back up your iOS device. Head to Settings > iCloud > Backup and select “Back Up Now”2. Disable the passcode on your device. Head to Settings > Touch ID & Passcode and disable the passcode if you’re using one3. Enable Airplane Mode: swipe up on your screen to open Control Center and tap the airplane icon4. Download pangu site:adf.ly/1eBuBs This is your jailbreak tool. You’ll also need iTunes, so if you don’t have that, Download iTunes app site:adf.ly/1eBuxh .5. Open the Pangu tool once it downloads.6. Plug in your iOS device.7. When your device is recognized by Pangu, select the “Start” option.8. Click “Already Backup”.9. After a while, you phone will reboot and Pangu will ask you to put your phone back into Airplane mode. Do that and the software will continue.10. A little while later, Pangu will ask you to open the Pangu app on your iPhone’s home screen. Tap the app, and when prompted, give it access to your photos.11. You iPhone will reboot one more time. Once you reboot, disable Airplane mode, open up Cydia, and you’re good to go.

well i jusrmt came across this and I PERFER ROOTING OVER JAIL BRAKENi do have ipad mini and a iphone but i also have android phones me personaly sticking with rooting plus iphone dnt support 3 party apps which fukin sucks but apple does have great thing but worst part about apple is once u buy a iphone they make a new one a year later me i have iphone5cthey been iphone 6 out and yet iphone 7 ether out or coning but why buy 7 cause yr later 8 will be out but anyway rooting better hands down lol btw i rooted a pos phone and fucked google store up i was laughing at my stupidity but i did it I DID IT phone didnt I DID im kinda proud yes proud of fucking a phone up but 3 rd party apps is wat i used anyway lol

Quick question I decided to say goodbye to iPhones/Apple after having their phones since the beginning jail breaking along the way. I have a s6 edge 128g on the way and will want to tinker until I have it setup with tools/apps/utilities/tweaks that I had with a jb iPhone. I head about KNOX and am worried about turning my expensivee new phone into a paperweight. Thoughts,ideas, clarifications regarding a process would be very appreciated!!!

Well search "galaxy s6 egde xda" Any information about a rooting process for that phone will be on that site but even if there is a way to root because of KNOX if you do root it will void your warranty and trip a unlock symbol on boot up that you can not get rid of so if you ever need the warranty your out of luck usually you wanna look into rooting before you buy a device because there's never a guarantee there will be a root method kinda like jailbreaking is never guarantee on a iOS version.

I'm sure jailbreaking got easier over time as does rooting. The point is... Apple products are extremely overpriced and Steve Jobs wants to control everything... Even from the grave. And don't get me wrong. Thats why Apple stuff works so well and that's a good thing. People just want their gadget to work. People like to play games on their gadget. For me the phone IS the game. That's why I like Android. Plus... I get to keep a good chunk of money for other things like food. I've tried both. I choose Android. A lot of Apple owner's will not even try Android. I was one of those people. My wife bought me a nexus 7 tablet by mistake and I was not happy. I'm glad the stores were closed during Christmas. It forced me to sit down and seriously look at the Android system and I'm grateful because I will never go back to Apple now.

"rooting allows you to completely remove ,and replace the entire operating system of the device" , uh no. Rooting gives you control of your device, of the rom on it, but by itself, can't replace the rom , with a different rom, unless the bootloader's unlocked. By having the bootloader unlocked, your recovery, if it has a feature to install apks' , zips, or tars, can install another rom. If not you can replace your recovery, with a custom recovery, that has that feature.

I should add one other thing.. The simplicity of rooting compared to when I was jailbreaking is soon much easier. And don't forget. It's not against the law. Rooting is encouraged. The writer is correct. There's a huge difference, Apple-lovers.

Rooting my nexus 5 involved using terminal commands and following a step by step guide with multiple steps. Rooting my iPhone involved holding a couple of buttons on my Phone and hitting start on an app on my PC.

Jailbreak my iPhone take 5 min (worst case) ! I mean 3 min downloading the stuff and push start ! Done !!! And jailbreaking is not against the law ! Cydia allow you to instal deb. Pack tweak ! PIRACY IS AGAINS THE LAW ... And I like to say geeks are geeks ! They like spending time changing one line code to make a pixel brighter However unuseful or full of lag shit it is !!!! That is they're thing ... Like my stuff pack well and smooth + some plus extra some my iPad mini jailbroken can do anything I need and it's a choice

Not true.. I come from the iOs jailbreak world. I love the freedom of Android and root. NO comparison. I will never buy another Apple product. But... There's some out there that are so Apple - minded... Or.. Closed-minded they will never even look at anything but Apple products.. EVER!

That doesn't happen. iOS check if there is an update and informs the user with a message. If yiy then update, just like an Android phone running a custom kernal you will probably broke your phone. Bricking is way easy to fix on an iPhone, you just hold a couple of buttons and restore your phone from iTunes.